You and I
by echoingsouls
Summary: Ino and Shikamaru, years and years of friendship, and something else, too. 50 prompts
1. beginning

**author's note: **It's summer, I have spare time and I thought this was a good way to fill that spare time with. enjoy x

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**summary: **it's not much, but it's something, it's a start.

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**01. beginning**

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Her eyes narrow.

She doesn't really like this boy, he is, to put it quite nicely(in her eyes), _weird. _What makes him weird? Well that's quite easy, it's all the things he does, to be honest, she's not even sure he's actually a human. After all, he prefers to take naps instead of play castle with her, he would rather sit and play a boring, old game of shogi than be her knight in shinning armor.

To be perfectly honest, she's always believed that he was more of an old man than an actual boy.

An actual part of her believed that he was actually a spaceman trapped inside of a boy's body as a punishment for messing up something in time. However, when she voiced this to her mother she had hummed and then laughed lightly, promising her that he wasn't an old man.

She just couldn't come up with a better explanation for his behavior, or why he was so languid in his movements, like an old man(although she's more than positive her jichan moves a lot faster than he does). Plus, she reminds herself, he's incredibly smart since he's always beating people in those shogi games he plays. She's positive that there is absolutely no way that he _can't_ be a spaceman trapped in another's body.

She kneels next to him, poking his cheek, "Shikamaru."

He stirs slightly before cracking an eye open, "Ino."

She grins, holding up a plastic sword, "be my knight today."

"No," he grumbles, "I'm taking a nap."

"You always take a nap," she tells him pouting, "just once."

"No."

"Fine, we can play something else," she smiles, "anything you want."

"I wanna play nap," he grins, "bye."

She frowns, watching as he shifts, laying on his side with a small smirk on his lips. She picks up the toy sword and pokes his face with it, watching as the smirk slips away and his face scrunched up in discomfort, but today she'll be the one who wins.

"I wanna play something," she tells him seriously, "please."

He sighs, cracking his eye open and slowly sitting up, "fine, but we'll do what I want to do."

She arches a brow before pouting, "Fine."

He stands up, brushing the bits of grass off his pants, before he extends out his hand for her to take. She does so hesitantly, and when she's hauled up she isn't given a chance to ask him what it is they're doing because he's moving rather quickly for someone who lacks energy.

It's a long way there but once they reach out she's amazed by how many flowers are around. She opens her mouth to comment on the beautiful flowers but before she can do so she notes that they're now heading up a hill.

"Here," he tells her, "sit."

She does so slowly, looking at him carefully, "What are we going to do."

"Cloud watch," he tells her, sitting down next to her.

She frowns watching as he lays down, "you're just going to nap again."

"No," he pouts, clearly annoyed, "we're gonna cloud watch."

She lays down next to him and looks up at the blue sky, the puffy white clouds moving across it slowly. Her eyes dart to Shikamaru who's looking at the clouds intently, she smiles her own moving back up to the sky, before she notices something.

"A rabbit," she laughs, "that's a rabbit."

"There's a fish," Shikamaru points.

She smiles, nodding her head, "I see a shark."

"It'll probably eat the fish," Shikamaru tells her, "there's a dog."

"That one looks like a flower," she giggles.

For the rest of the afternoon they spend it laying on the green grass, looking up at the big, blue sky. To be honest, Ino quite enjoys this much more than she would've enjoyed seeing Shikamaru pretend to be her knight in shinning armor, and now that she looks at it, it's probably not true that he's some spaceman trapped in another's body.

Plus, she reasons with a small smile, his hand is nice and warm, and it hasn't let go of her own since they arrived, and that, she smiles, that's a start.


	2. thunder

**summary: **moments like these are the ones he likes best.

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**02. thunder**

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When he figure it out he was surprised, to say the least.

After all, this was Ino, the ever courageous girl, with a loud mouth and a confidence that put anyone to shame. She was someone who never showed anyone a weak side, she made everyone believe that she was fearless, having absolutely nothing to be scared of.

Even he believed her.

That was until he went in search for her one stormy June, afternoon. He had been looking forward to a nice night in, and decided that since her parents and his parents were on some cruise, God knows where, he'd invite her over for dinner and some movies.

However, upon entering her house he noted that everything was pitch black and that there was absolutely no sign of Ino anywhere. He had felt panic at first because Inoichi had trusted him to look after his only daughter while he was away, and to think that she was stranded somewhere with no help made his heart clench.

So he dialed her cell phone, hoping she'd pick up and tell him that she needed a ride, that she was somewhere with friends. Hell, he wouldn't even care if she was out with some guy, he just needed to be sure that she was safe and taken care of.

But no one picked up, he had been slightly irked and slightly fearful, so he kept dialing, keeping the device pressed to his ear as he searched further in the house. It was when he got to the top floor that he heard the faint ringing, and he frowned, was she here?

He followed the faint ringing, sending in straight to a door that had Ino's name in big letters, several photos scattered about and other decorations along with it. He sighed, pushing the slightly opened door and expected to see Ino lying in bed taking a nap, completely oblivious to the weather outside or to him being in her house.

But when the door opened completely the bed was empty and her phone was lying there in the middle of it.

He frowned, looking around, "Ino?"

That's when he heard a small noise coming from her closet, slowly moving towards it he opened the closet's door to find her sitting there on the ground. She looked so unlike the Ino he had grown up with, her blond hair was loose from its usual ponytail, but her bangs were sticking to her sweaty face.

She was shaking slightly, eyes wide as she looked at him and he noticed that he could see tears in them, as well as tear tracks falling down her cheeks. He wondered if this was the cause of a break up or something with some guy he knew nothing about.

But when a loud 'boom' came from outside, she shrieked and clamped her hands over her ears, eyes shut tightly and everything clicked.

When the thundered roared once more he bent down to her level, "Ino, are you afraid of thunder?"

Instead of brushing him off she nodded slowly, "Y-Yeah."

And it was the most vulnerable, most human Ino he's ever seen. Looking at it this way, though, he truly prefered the fierce Ino that bit his ear off for sleeping in class, or oversleeping and making them late to the train station. He prefered anything to seeing her look so frightened and helpless, not that he'd let her know that.

"Come on, you can come to my house," he tells her softly, holding out his hand for her.

She takes it without hesitation and holds on tightly as she reaches her bed to collect her phone. They had left her house in such a rush that he had to wonder why he never noticed that she was scared of thunder, after all, they've known each other for years, he should at least know this.

They enter his house quickly, slipping off their shoes and he watches as she pads to the couch, where he was napping before the loud storm woke him up. She sits down and pulls the large blanket over her small frame and sighs softly, burying her face behind it.

"You hungry?" he asks.

She nods, "Yeah."

"Wanna help me make something?"

She nods her head and release the blanket, slipping off the couch and walking into the kitchen with him. Together they prepare dinner and he notes that in between joking around and almost burning his mother's house down, she forgets about all the thunder. Even he does as well, completely enthralled with her bell-like laughter to even pay the storm any form of mind.

When they get done, they eat and then watch several movies until she falls asleep, slumped against him.

From then on, she always rushes over when thunder's roaring outside, his parents nor her parents every question it, simply go with it. And even if he won't admit it, he enjoys those days, enjoys having her right next to him and being her shoulder to cry on. He enjoys having her laugh and smile just because of something he said or did, just for him.

It makes falling for her all the more worth it.


End file.
